Eighty Days to Elsewhere by K.C. Dyer
Series: ExLibris Adventure #1
Also in this series: An Accidental Odyssey
Published by Berkley on August 11, 2020
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance
Pages: 480
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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"The Amazing Race" meets Around the World in 80 Days as a woman desperate to save her family bookstore falls for her competition.

Born and raised in New York City, Ramona Keene dreams of attending photography school and traveling to Paris, but her reality never quite catches up with her imagination. Instead, she works at her uncles' quaint bookstore, where the tea is plentiful and all the adventures are between the covers of secondhand books. But when the new landlord arrives with his Evil Nephew in tow, Romy's quiet life comes crashing down. He plans to triple the rent, something her uncles can't afford.

In order to earn the money to help save the bookstore, Romy applies for a job at ExLibris Expeditions, a company that re-creates literary journeys. Romy snags the oddest internship ever: retrace Phileas Fogg's journey from Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days and plan a suitable, contemporary adventure for a client. The task is close to impossible; sticking to the original route means no commercial aircraft permitted, and she's got a lot less than eighty days to work with. Shaking off her fear of leaving home, Romy takes on the challenge, only to discover she's got competition. Worse, Dominic Madison turns out to be the - unfortunately hot - nephew of her family's worst enemy.

Can Romy win the race and circle the globe in time to save the bookstore? And what happens when she starts to fall for the very person who may just be the death of her dreams?

Ok. If a book’s synopsis mentions one of my favorite reality TV shows, The Amazing Race, it’s pretty safe to assume that I need that book. Really, I need any book that involves travel and this one also includes a heroine with a love of books who goes on a trip that retraces the steps of Around the World In 80 Days by Jules Verne. The only thing that annoyed me about this book is that I didn’t read it sooner. I. Loved. It.

This book is very very long, and it needs to be because a journey around the world deserves some time to flesh it all out in great detail. K.C. Dyer does just that. Every location and experience is told in such vivid detail that I felt like I was there. I could smell the mustiness of the Paris Catacombs, feel the ships bobbing over waves, and see the bright lights of Hong Kong. It was such a wonderful adventure, filled with characters that were so memorable and endearing.

Romy has a lot of fear and anxiety surrounding travel, and it’s held her back in her life before. But she’s doing this for something larger than her fear. Her sweet, sweet uncles (I honestly loved them) have run a bookstore for ages, and the new landlord is raising the rent exponentially in order to try and force them out. While out moping about an unknown future, Romy spots an ad for a company that plans extravagant literary journeys inspired by books. They’re looking to hire someone, and Romy wants to do this to make enough money to save the bookstore. After a lackluster interview, the job is given to someone else. Romy won’t take no for an answer and decides to fight back. She runs into that office and begs for the opportunity (it reminded me of when Andy fights against Miranda Priestley’s brush-off in The Devil Wears Prada). So the competition is born! The boss lady, Teresa, decides to give Romy a shot and allows her to race against the other job candidate. Whoever makes it back to the ExLibris office first gets the job.

The journey starts out with Romy on her own, not having any idea who this other mysterious job candidate is. As the synopsis mentions, travel methods cannot include commercial airlines. I loved Romy’s creativity. She books passage on things like container ships, shipping vessels, a funicular, a helicopter, trains, rickshaws, a party bus, and even a raft at one point. I loved reading about her experiences and the people she met. During her journey she stumbles across Dominic and it’s revealed that he’s her competition. He’s also the “evil Nephew” of her uncles’ new landlord. They’re forced to join forces when travel options become limited. Their journey also becomes more than simply winning a job when they both become invested in helping an orphaned 14-year-old Somali refugee named Sumaya find her family in another country. I grew very attached to Sumaya. She’s been through so much pain and fear, yet she’s a bundle of pure joy. Everything makes her so happy. Her dream is to be a stand-up comedian, and she spends a lot of her journey with Romy and Dom testing her comedy routines out on fellow travelers, crew members, local people, and others helping them on their way. The addition of Sumaya to their travel plans makes things complicated and scary at times because she had no papers, but she was worth it to them to take that risk and I loved that. Throughout their journey (haha I sound like a writer for The Bachelor), Romy and Dom start to feel things for one another. The romance is there, but very understated. If travel is involved, I don’t mind at all sacrificing some of the romance for travel so I loved it. It’s worth mentioning, though, that there is a very romantic ending and I was completely satisfied.

Both Dom and Romy learn so much about themselves and the world, which is one of my favorite things about traveling. I absolutely loved reading about the places they saw, the people they met, and how this experience changed them for the better. I loved reading about the kindness of complete strangers they met as they traveled. These people made sacrifices and put themselves in danger to help them, oftentimes not asking for anything in return. This book reminded me that most humans are good people, and that life is made better when you help others and allow others to help you.

All in all, Eighty Days to Elsewhere is touching, eye opening, heartwarming, funny, and subtly romantic. It also sheds light on some important issues around the world. I had the hardest time putting this book down, and found so much joy in returning to it each evening to continue my adventure around the world. I can’t wait to read the next book in this series, An Accidental Odyssey, which came out last month!